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N ATCHEZ, Miss. — Before steam power, the “Kaintucks” who floated crops and other goods on
flatboats down the Mississippi River from the north had to walk back home.

That long and arduous return was usually up the foot trail — used since prehistoric times —
called the Natchez Trace. The way was riddled with bandits, and the comforts of the small inns —
known as stands — were questionable at best.

Today’s travelers will find the going significantly improved. The Natchez Trace Parkway, a
smooth two-lane highway administered by the National Park Service, follows, more or less, the route
of the old footpath.

The parkway runs 444 miles northeast from the Mississippi River town of Natchez across the
entire state of Mississippi, cuts across a sliver of northwestern Alabama and ends just south of
Nashville, Tenn.

The parkway is closed to commercial traffic and is bordered for most of its length by strips of
woods and meadows that block out the modern world. I decided to drive the trace in three days after
a night in Natchez, with overnight stops in Jackson and Tupelo.

My stay in Natchez coincided with the annual Spring Pilgrimage festivities, featuring tours of
18 antebellum homes, musical and theatrical performances, and other special events. This year’s
similar Fall Pilgrimage is scheduled for Sept. 27 through Oct. 14.

A few of the homes on tours operate as year-round museums, including the fabulous and
architecturally unusual Longwood House, now a National Historic Landmark.

Longwood is the largest octagonal home ever built in the United States — but the interior was
never finished.

Construction of the mansion, which is topped by a massive Byzantine-style onion dome, was halted
during the Civil War, and then made permanent by the death of the owner, a wealthy cotton baron.
His family eventually moved into the basement, where they lived quite comfortably, but the huge
upper stories were never completed.

Visitors can get a great view of the massive home’s bare bones and construction details on those
upper floors, but they can only imagine the opulence in what would have been 32 rooms.

My first stop on the parkway was Mount Locust, the only remaining Natchez Trace stand from the
50 or so once found along the trail. The tiny inn, which dates from around 1780, is one of the
oldest buildings in the state.

Visitors can tour the old inn, which is furnished as it might have been in the early 19th
century. Another “must-stop” site on this stretch is the “sunken trace” at mile 41.5. Here, an
actual section of the old pathway, eroded by the thousands upon thousands of travelers who went
before, has sunk deep into the earth.

There wasn’t much to Jackson, Miss., during the heyday of the trace. But today the city is a
great place to stop overnight, get a meal at a fine restaurant and explore Mississippi history.

A good starting point is the Old Capitol Museum, a Greek revival beauty that served as the
statehouse from 1839 to 1903.

Damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the building was completely renovated. Today, it houses a
museum.

The building that replaced the old capitol is also an architectural masterpiece. With its Greek
columns and a dome rising to 180 feet, the exterior of the Mississippi State Capitol is reminiscent
of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Inside, the splendid edifice of marble, bronze and gold leaf seems to drip grandeur. The rotunda
ceiling is painted with four huge murals depicting Mississippi history.

Driving north, interesting stops include Indian mounds and an old Chickasaw village site that
now houses exhibits about the tribe and its culture.

Another era of history is represented by the grave sites of 13 unknown Confederate soldiers who
were buried alongside the old trace. The short walk to the grave sites from the parkway is a moving
experience.

Today, Tupelo is all about Elvis. And why not? The city’s favorite son helped turn a
hardscrabble town into something of a tourist mecca.

The Elvis Presley Birthplace Museum preserves the shotgun shack where Elvis was born (thanks to
Elvis himself, who purchased the two-room house in 1957).

Visitors will also find a memorial museum, theater and chapel at the site.

My favorite exhibit was the Tupelo Assembly of God church attended by Elvis and his family, now
restored and moved several blocks to the museum site.

Visitors experience a virtual (and highly condensed) gospel-music service through projector
screens.The rollicking gospel music that so influenced Elvis made me want to jump up and join in a
chorus of
I’ll Fly Away, but none of the other visitors seemed ready to join in.

Nature seemed to take center stage on the last leg of my trip.

I spotted flocks of wild turkeys along the way and made stops at a cypress swamp and at Rock
Springs, a beautiful natural area with picturesque steppingstones leading across the spring-fed
creek just below a beaver-dam pond.

Dotting this stretch are several waterfalls — including Fall Hollow, where visitors will find a
delightfully treacherous trail over crumbling rock steps.

My last stop was in Tennessee, at the park service’s Meriwether Lewis site.

It was here that Lewis, who gained prominence for his role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
apparently took his own life while staying at Grintner’s Stand.

The site includes a re-created log inn containing an exhibit on Lewis’ life — and death.
Visitors will also find a campground, trails and a monument marking Lewis’ grave.

Yes, the man who once famously blazed the nation’s path into the unknown West lies at rest here,
alongside what has been, for unknown thousands of wayfarers, the long path home.